G4 - April M
Cultural Change in the Hispano Homeland Dating back over four hundred years, the Hispano culture is among the oldest surviving distinct cultures in the United States. The term Hispano refers to the mixed-blood descendants of the Pueblo Indians indigenous to the region and the Spanish explorers who conquered them near the end of the 16th century. The Hispano Homeland, as Robert Nostrand calls it in his book ‘The Hispano Homeland’ encompasses the Rio Arriba area of northern New Mexico and just into southern Colorado. “Rio Arriba means “upper river,” the Spanish designation for the region of the upper Rio Grande in New Mexico.” (NMSU) As a modern point of reference, Santa Fe and Taos are within the Hispano Homeland area. The Hispano culture reflects the unique blending of Spanish and Pueblo ways. In “Across This Land” John C. Hudson offers some examples of this, “Adobe construction had been used in the pueblos long before the Spanish arrived, but the Spanish introduced the practice of sun-baking the adobe into bricks Whereas the pueblo natives were in the habit of constructing multistory dwellings of apartment-like rooms, the Spaniards established the practice of arranging single-story adobe buildings in a rectangular arrangement facing an interior plaza.” (Hudson P. 288) Native agriculture was another area affected by Spanish influence, “Irrigation was a long-established practice in southwestern native agriculture, but the Spanish brought techniques of irrigation farming and water diversion that increased the scale and intensity of the native system. The Hispano culture was thus a hybrid that was unique to New Mexico” (Hudson P. 288) Cultural change has come much more slowly to the Hispano homeland than to other areas of the country. Nostrand writes that Hispanos have, “A distinctive subculture,” and offers two reasons for this, “First their ancestors came earlier and, with exceptions, more directly from Spain,” than other populations. “Second, after initial colonization, Hispanos were isolated from outside contact, and their numbers increased - factors that fostered certain indigenous attributes.” (Nostrand P. 7) The dialect of Spanish spoken in the Hispano region has retained many of the archaic words and constructions not currently found in modern Spain or America. Not until the 19th century did the Hispanos begin to experience influence from outside sources. Up until the end of the Spanish period (1598-1821) Hispanos thought of themselves as Spanish, not Mexican. A shift in this began to occur during the Mexican period between 1821 and 1846. Further adjustment occurred upon the arrival of a more steady stream of Anglos who expressed an ethnic distinction between Spanish and Mexican peoples. A third alteration happened after the American takeover. Beginning in 1846, the term, “Spanish-American,” became the preferred designation of Hispanos. “In New Mexico, an “Anglo” is anyone who is not Indian or of Spanish-Indian or Mexican descent. Even blacks are ‘Anglos’.” (Nostrand P. 99) Most Anglo intruders, as they were thought of, assimilated into the dominant Hispano culture, however, “Because many were educated, possessed skills, had access to American markets, or had connections with the elite of new Mexico’s society, these early intruders wielded power and influence that were disproportionate to their small numbers. And in a small way they started the process whereby Hispanos became Anglicized.” (Nostrand P. 103) By 1850 a large contingent of American soldiers were present in the Rio Arriba. In the same year there were fifteen priests and one vicar, all Hispanos. Fifty years later there were fifty-six Catholic clergy, only three of which were Hispano. The entrance of railroads into the picture had much the same effect as in other areas of the country. Railroad companies including the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (AT&SF), Atlantic and Pacific (A&P), Denver and Rio Grande (D&RG), all built lines into and around the Hispano Homeland. By 1880 Las Vegas, Española and Albuquerque were accessible via rail, with Santa Fe connected later by spur. “These major carriers and the lesser ones that followed brought truly profound changes.” New towns were platted and constructed adjacent to the Hispano communities already present. In his book, “Southwest,” D.W. Meinig says, “New Towns…were the chief exhibits of the Anglo presence, the point of injection and the centers for diffusion of the people, objects, and ideas of an aggressive national culture which was exerting pressure upon every people of the region, no matter how ancient, and penetrating every corner, no matter how remote.” (Meinig P. 53) The railroads facilitated mining in the region along with the foreign-born population of workers needed to support the mining industry. This brought an influx of Italians, Austrians, English, Scottish, Polish, Germans, and Irish. In 1850, over 90 percent of the region’s population was Hispano. By 1900, Anglos represented just over 30 percent of the population. By 1980 the figures were inverted with Hispanos making up just 31 percent of the Homeland population. Yet another less populous but notably impactful group was the Jewish merchants, most of whom were German-born. Many Jewish storekeepers were well established before the railroads arrived. “Occasionally these German merchants were the only non-Hispanos in a given village. Some were married to Hispanas.” (Nostrand P. 112) “As a distinct people in intimate and critical contact with all the others, they were in a strategic position for the promotion of cultural harmony….these versatile persons were the principal architects in the formation of a functioning regional society from an array of disparate parts.” (Meinig P. 57) “Symbolic of their vital role as middlemen were their stores, which invariably faced right onto the all-important village plaza.” (Nostrand P. 112) Language, material culture, architecture, and village structure were impacted as well. At the turn of the 20th century there were still villages in the Hispano Homeland where Spanish was exclusively the spoken language, but by 1980 children under ten years old were more proficient in English than Spanish. “American-style shirts and coats replaced sarapes, iron stoves supplanted corner adobe fireplaces, and pitched roofs replaced flat roofs.” (Nostrand P. 123) Dr. Jeffrey S. Smith, in his study of Spanish-American village anatomy says this, “Where a Spanish-American culture continues to dominate, a traditional town anatomy is maintained. But where outside cultural influences, especially Anglo, have made inroads into the community, the settlement’s morphology assumes a distinctly different appearance.” “The Hispanos’ sizable population, their distinctive culture, and their deep roots in New Mexico make their area a “cultural region.” (Nostrand P. 24) “It is one of the most fundamental features of the region that, although many thousands more numerous than the Indians, it is the Hispanos who show the greater stress of culture contact.” (Meinig P. 102) Yet in spite of one hundred and fifty years of intrusion into their culture by outside influences, the Hispanos of northern New Mexico show, “A quiet stubborn adherence to language, religion, and many folkways.” (Meinig P. 103) Alvar Carlson poses the question most relevant to the Hispano culture region, “The test of time will determine whether the Río Arriba as American’s oldest rural European cultural region will endure to be the country’s last one.” New Mexico State University. Rio Arriba County Extension Service. http://rioarribaextension.nmsu.edu/index.html The Hispano Homeland. Richard L. Nostrand. 1992 Southwest: Three Peoples in Geographical Change, 1600-1970. D.W. Meinig 1971 Across This Land; A Regional Geography of the United States and Canada. John C. Hudson 2002. Spanish American village anatomy. Journal article by Jeffrey S. Smith; The Geographical Review, Vol. 88, 1998. http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst?docId=5001415313 Alvar Carlson, The Spanish-American Homeland: Four Centuries in New Mexico’s Río Arriba, 1990. “The test of time will determine whether the Río Arriba as America’s oldest rural European cultural region will endure to be the country’s last one.” Ute Mountain, Rio Grande Del Norte, New Mexico photo courtesy of New Mexico Wilderness Alliance. http://www.nmwild.org/blog/congressman-lujan-introduces-bill-to-protect-rio-grande-del-norte/. Retrieved from web June 1, 2010. Upper Penitente Morada Chapel, Arroyo Hondo, Taos County, NM photo courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Historic American Buildings Survey, Reproduction Number: HABS,NM,28-ARROY,1-1. Retrieved from web June 1, 2010. Hispano Homeland map courtesy of Juan B. Rael Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress. Retrieved from web June 2, 2010. Taos Pueblo photo courtesy of New Mexico Culture Net http://www.nmculturenet.org/heritage/folk_arts/land/intro/index.htm. Retrieved from web June 2, 2010. 1806 example of Colonial era Spanish-Pueblo architecture courtesy of www.hgtv http://www.hgtv.com/home-improvement/the-pueblo/index.html. Retrieved from web June 2, 2010.